General Meeting Minutes 11/2

Approves by SBA Board on 11/14

General General Meeting Minutes 11/2

Present: Chanel, Ernesto, Neil, Anthony, Dustin, Christina, Aparna, Navdeep, Stephen, Kate. Absent: Shoeb, Megan, Lexi

Item number 3, BLSA needs to re-do their funding request because of a change to the event ; we will not be voting on that today (Ernesto).

Add in a discussion about the HOWLoween claw back because of a cancellation of the event (Neil). Proposal about the uniqueness requirement and number of signatures; we will discuss it next meeting (Dustin). Move to approve meeting agenda (Ernesto), second (Dustin). Aye (10), Nays (0)

Moot court funding vote questions (Ernesto). Ayes for the $300 motion: Stephen, Kate, Aparna. Ayes for $200: Neil, Anthony, Nav, Aparna. $250: unanimous Move to approve minutes for 10/17 (Ernesto), second (Anthony). Concern about approval of minutes before publication (Neil). We will add a disclaimer “pending approval by board.” Ayes (Neil, Anthony, Aparna, Navdeep, Stephen, Kate), Nay (0), Abstain (Chanel, Christina, Dustin). Minutes approved

Clawback discussion for HOWLoween event (Neil); spoke to Jacqueline Logan about the cancellation of the event; cookies were already paid for, decorations were paid for, and fliers were printed; Should we clawback all or just the unspent amount (Neil); able to use the decorations again; cookies and printing are lost costs at $44.05; We funded them $600 for Bon Apetit Motion to clawback unspent money of $550.00 minus decorations because they will use them in future years (Dustin), second (Nav). Discussion, pull up original funding request (Ernesto); food was about $550 (Neil) Ayes (Chanel, Neil, Anthony, Dustin, Christina, Aparna, Navdeep, Stephen, Kate), Nays (0). Motion approved.

Bylaws discussion (Ernesto); Question about the new and old versions of the bylaws (Chanel); policies and bylaws are different (Ernesto); it seemed to make sense to put the election rules in the policies so that they can be amended easier (Christina); Opening up the table for ABA rep and conflicts (Ernesto); the only thing that would be hard to deal with is the President’s conflict (Nav); it generally says that if there is a tie I must vote but if I have a conflict I cannot vote (Ernesto); I would like a default “no” and I think Lexi wants a default “yes” (Dustin); could we waive the conflict for ties that also have conflicts (Kate); IPSA and PLSS have Ernesto on the board (Ernesto); even if you stepped down there would still be a conflict (Chanel); instead of waiving the conflict we could re-open the discussion to try to break the tie (Christina); there is a problem with first years joining every club and there always being a conflict so could we change the voting requirements (Neil); so what you’re saying is 2/3 of the eligible members instead of 2/3 of voting members (Stephen); there is still a problem with impropriety (Dustin); we might have to change the articles to waive the quorum requirements (Neil); the only problem is the tie breaker (Ernesto); changing the bylaw about quorum to get quorum of voting members instead of members present (Neil); nobody’s kicked out of the motion but the vote is only the eligible members for quorum (Stephen); So the conflict is for board members or dues paying member or planning member??? (Ernesto); we need to set a bar, it doesn’t have to be really high but we need to make minimum standards that we must meet for conflict (Kate); PLSS and other clubs are sticky because they require dues payment in order to participate in the scholarship/grant program (Ernesto); Can we make an exception for that one club (Chanel); the problem is that we’re trying to be too specific, the bylaws require that the member decide what improprieties we must and must not meet a standard for (Stephen); we are entering a profession where conflicts checks are a requirement and we could work within the board to decide which conflicts require us to not vote; we could have a vote on a conflict of the president where we would have to vote unanimously for the conflict before we vote on the conflicted matter (Christina); would this be an extra section or a special circumstance ? (Ernesto) If there is a tie, then the president proposes his argument about why he is or is not conflicted and then we vote for a majority requirement of non-conflicted voters (Dustin).

*Ernesto will work on language with the help of Dustin for the conflicts addition to the bylaws; this would apply to all members, not just the president.

ABA representative discussion (Ernesto); election dates generally start in January which is much earlier than we ever think about the ABA rep; what other schools do is have two two-year positions, one vice-chair and one chair; it could be an election for another position on the board; right now we have the SBA president appoint a chair after they’re elected in April/May; Mirwais and I suggest that we run an election and the ABA rep’s responsibility to SBA would be to run for as many national positions as possible; McGeorge is just behind on all of the planning and events of the reps (Ernesto); what if we have the spring elections with the president’s rep on his own ticket and they sit for two years (Neil); you would have to exempt final year students (Stephen); so presidents would have to choose a first or second year evening student for this (Neil); This could be in tandem with the first year election because the workload is a little lighter for the elections committee and it would allow students to get word of it and be appointed in time to start working on the spring appointments and planning (Ernesto); so the question is to have the person appointed based on who you work well with (Christina); if someone is running for vice-chair in the fall they would have fall, winter break, and all of spring and summer to prepare for the ABA conference (Ernesto); we could select the vice now who would work alongside Mirwais then be the chair next year and the running SBA president would be able to bring in the vice chair (Stephen); this year we could appoint then have a fall election from here on out to avoid the slate problem (Christina); we could add it to the normal ballot and make it a voting position (Christina); the big advantage of the fall is that there is the winter break to apply to things (Ernesto); you would still have it but it would just be voted on a little earlier (Christina); if we make this a spring thing then we would be keeping out first years (Ernesto); We would open it up for five possible candidate pools (Nav); we still want to appoint someone for this year so that we have someone but that would be the last appointment from here on out (Ernesto); Can we also get the requirements clarified for the position (Kate).

*Ernesto will write up a proposal for next meeting’s vote. Stephen will serve on the Student Code of Responsibility Board.

Nominations are Stephen Guichard and Christina Forst for members of this board (Ernesto). Move to approve nominations (Ernesto), second (Dustin) Ayes (Neil, Anthony, Dustin, Aparna, Navdeep, Kate), Nays (0), Abstain (Chanel, Christina, Stephen). Appointments of Stephen and Christina pass.

Committees: Barristers: Jackie is working on the contract; Aparna found a DJ to do it for $700; budget is around $1200 for all the decorations(Aparna); all the committees will be notified to check in with Neil about the budgets to keep everyone in the loop (Ernesto)

Diversity committee: has not substantively done anything since the first meeting but it is more of Professor Bricker plus three (Anthony).

Elections committee: online elections went well; little issues but we had about 2/3 of votes (Nav); an idea, when you put up the 1L elections the “join” page needs to make it more clear because it was a little hard to find (Chanel); I’ll talk to Jessica Greathouse about getting that prioritized (Ernesto); campaigning should start when you turn in your petition, first come first serve (Chanel); disagree (Neil); proxy issue, one of the issues was that one candidate actually showed up in person (Anthony); problem with candidates informally complaining and we don’t want to serve as a kangaroo court (Nav); the elections committee has a little too much control over campaigning and it should be let up a little (Nav); I think we might want to revisit the Facebook rules about campaigning (Christina); section pages are extremely different from club pages that are run by boards (Chanel); election bylaws say that you have to gain permission from the Facebook page to post on it (Dustin); I don’t feel comfortable with those decisions being decided by four or five people (Nav). We will slate time for the next meeting to discuss this (Ernesto).

Sustainability: Bruce and Rebekah are working on this; compost maybe being sold etc (Stephen); Rebekah is working on the solar panels; bike program in the spring (Stephen); bike kitchen is cool (Chanel)

Sports: has anyone talked to Connor (Ernesto); Michael Mahan and Wade are taking over it apparently (Neil); club chairs are taking over kickball tournament (Neil); times are the problem for people (Nav); in January we can have a catch-up with the committee chairs (Ernesto);

Career Development: Amanda is in touch with Professor Colatrella about the spring program (Dustin); legal professions class in the spring with the CDO; the CDO has been working with the committee and head shots are being offered now (Dustin); the members are trying to work with clubs to get a list of events in the Spring (Ernesto).

Move to adjourn meeting (Ernesto), second (Nav) Aye (Chanel, Neil, Anthony, Dustin, Christina, Aparna, Navdeep, Stephen, Kate), Nays (0)